Tag Archives: swords

Chunsoft, Enix, NES/Famicom

Dragon Warrior, NES

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Developed by Chunsoft and released for the Famicom by Enix in 1986, Dragon Quest was a landmark moment in video game history.

Dragon Warrior is the American NES release of Dragon Quest, translated into English and tweaked here and there (I say “tweaked here and there” but the US version had battery back-up saves and the Japanese version used password saves, so there was a big difference there), and released by Nintendo in 1989. These grabs are from the later North American English language release.

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PlayStation, Square

Brave Fencer Musashi, PlayStation

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Square‘s 1998 PlayStation release, Brave Fencer Musashi, is an entertaining single-player action/RPG, with real-time sword combat and a 3D environment and characters.

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CD Projekt Red, gog.com, iOS, Linux, PC, Steam, Windows, XBox 360

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC

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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was first released in 2011 by Polish developer CD Projekt Red.

It is the predecessor to the smash hit The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and also follows the exploits of Geralt of Rivia – a Witcher, or monster-hunter – on a series of open-world adventures.

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Amiga, Cinemaware

Defender of the Crown, Amiga

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The Amiga version of Cinemaware‘s classic Defender of the Crown is both beautiful to look at, and great fun to play. Actually, pretty much every version of Defender of the Crown I’ve played has been great, but the Amiga version is probably the most well-remembered. It was also the very first version of Defender of the Crown too – all the other versions followed later.

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Bad Video Games, Carnell Software, Commodore 64, Mastertronic

Black Crystal, Commodore 64

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Black Crystal is infamous for being an overpriced and under-produced RPG from the early days of home computing.

This Commodore 64 version plays pretty much the same as the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum versions, in that: it’s absolutely awful and will have you both tearing your hair out in minutes, and also wondering who on earth would make such a game…

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Bad Video Games, Carnell Software, Mastertronic, ZX Spectrum

Black Crystal, ZX Spectrum

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Black Crystal is infamous for being an overpriced and under-produced RPG from the early days of home computing.

The first version of Black Crystal was the ZX81 version, which was designed and programmed by Roy Carnell and Stuart Galloway and released in 1982. A ZX Spectrum version followed in 1983, then a Commodore 64 version later in 1985.

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Megadrive/Genesis, Tiertex, US Gold

Strider II, Megadrive/Genesis

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Strider II is a console-only sequel to the great Capcom arcade game of 1989. It was developed by British company Tiertex and published by U.S. Gold in 1990. A Sega Megadrive version followed later in 1992.

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Blizzard, Interplay, Silicon & Synapse, Super Nintendo

The Lost Vikings, Super Nintendo

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The Lost Vikings is a platform/puzzle game developed by Silicon & Synapse (now Blizzard Entertainment), and was originally released for the Super Nintendo by Interplay in 1993.

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FTL, JVC, Software Heaven, Super Nintendo

Dungeon Master, Super Nintendo

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This is a very effective Japanese conversion of the great US, 16-bit classic, Dungeon Master, by FTL and Software Heaven.

The conversion was handled by JVC Interactive and was first released in Japan in 1992, before being translated and released in North America and Europe later.

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Enix, Quintet, Super Nintendo

ActRaiser, Super Nintendo

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Developed by Quintet for Enix in 1990, ActRaiser is a hybrid side-scrolling hack and slash platform game, with an overhead ‘God game’ type section.

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